Both of my drives showing as system drives

prizna · 03 Aug 2013

I have a custom build desktop with 2 internal drives a 'Samsung SSD 840 Pro' and a 'Seagate Barracuda ST32000641AS'

I decided to format my PC using the Windows 7 boot disk, but noticed when choosing what drive to install my OS to, both of my drives types are labeled as System Drives, I decided to go ahead anyway and install my OS to my SSD, but after completing installation, Disk Management shows both of my drives as Active drives. I have searched a bit online and it seems that only my C drive should be an Active drive, does this have anything to do with both of my drives being read as System Drives at the start of installation. What would be the reason for both of my drives being Active? I have no problems with reformatting if needed.

thanks,

**Pauly** · 03 Aug 2013

Only one drive should be active and this is where your boot info should be located
You can mark the drive inactive following this tutorial Partition - Mark as Inactive

If you are not sure about anything feel free to ask back

:)

prizna · 03 Aug 2013

Thanks for the reply, I will give it a try and then report back. But is there any reason that both my drives would be labeled as System Drives during installation and why they would both become active in the first place?

thanks,

TVeblen · 03 Aug 2013

The most common reason is that the drive once contained an operating system. People think they can just format the drive and be done with it. But that Active flag is set at a more basic level than formatting. You need to either wipe the drive clean, or manually switch off the Active flag as Pauly gave instructions for.

prizna · 03 Aug 2013

So having the OS on my secondary drive (the Seagate) in the past would also make it seen as a System Drive at the start of installation? (not Disk Management) I only ask because I previously had trouble where after installing the OS on my SSD, my secondary drive was seen as the System Drive in Disk Management and my SSD wan't, after a bit of troubleshooting I found that my secondary drive was in socket 00 while my SSD was in socket 01, switching these fixed the problem and now makes my SSD seen as the System Drive in Disk Management but has led me to both my drives being seen as System Drives at the start of installation. (not Disk Management)

TVeblen · 03 Aug 2013

That is why we have a rule: when installing an operating system, disconnect all other drives except the one you are installing the OS on.

Yes, any ACTIVE partition is seen by BIOS as a system drive, and it will try to start up from there. If the first ACTIVE partition does not have an OS to start up then the system will just freeze there.

whs · 03 Aug 2013

prizna said:

So having the OS on my secondary drive (the Seagate) in the past would also make it seen as a System Drive at the start of installation? (not Disk Management) I only ask because I previously had trouble where after installing the OS on my SSD, my secondary drive was seen as the System Drive in Disk Management and my SSD wan't, after a bit of troubleshooting I found that my secondary drive was in socket 00 while my SSD was in socket 01, switching these fixed the problem and now makes my SSD seen as the System Drive in Disk Management but has led me to both my drives being seen as System Drives at the start of installation. (not Disk Management)

The installer always grabs the disk with the lowest port number and installs the bootmgr there (which makes it 'active'). If that happens to you, it is possible to copy the bootmgr to C:\ without reinstalling.

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

prizna · 03 Aug 2013

Before I swapped my SSD from socket 01 to 00 I did actually try disconnecting my Seagate (at the time was in socket 00) while installing the OS on my SSD, this did make my SSD the system, active drive at the time, I then shut down and reconnected my seagate but after restarting my SSD was no longer the system, active drive and my seagate was now the system, active drive. This is no longer a problem after swapping my SSD to socket 00, but is there any reason that the system, active drive would swap after that reboot and reconnect of the Seagate?

TVeblen · 03 Aug 2013

Yes, as WHS (and I) have stated: the system tries the first Active drive it finds.

prizna · 03 Aug 2013

Thanks for all the help guys, I followed the steps to mark my drive as inactive and now my C drive is the only active drive. I just have one more question to clarify something that occurred during some of my testing. Does it make sense that when my SSD was connected to socked 01 (not 00) of my motherboard, that during windows setup when I choose what drive I want my OS on, the SSD type was labeled as primary and not system even though I have had the OS installed on that SSD in the past?